Join the euro? The Danes say nej takâ¦

A datapoint on the perception of the eurozone â courtesy of Danish bank, Danske:

Statistics Denmark regularly surveys the attitude of the Danes to the euro on behalf of Danske Bank. The June poll shows that the No side has caught up with â and overtaken â the Yes camp, so that it now has a comfortable lead of 11.3pps. This is the largest No lead since we launched our EMU poll in 1999. Looking solely at those who are certain how they would vote, the No side has in fact an even more solid lead. Only 32.1% of Danes polled expect to vote Yes, while 47.8% would be certain No voters â a difference of 15.7 percentage points.

No prizes for guessing why:

Comparing the results against our last survey in March 2010, the most noticeable shift is in the number of certain No voters. Clearly, this has to be seen in light of the uncertainty that the Greek budget problems, for example, have caused. The construction of the EMU has been questioned in the economic debate and this has of course affected Danish voters.

But even if the Danes are increasingly wary of joining the monetary union, the cost of actually staying away is simultaneously decreasing â a no-brainer decision then. As Danske points out:

In addition, the Danish central bank (Nationalbanken) has been able to narrow the official interest rate spread versus the euro zone to just 5bp over the past year. This makes the cost of not being a euro member appear considerably less than it did just 1.5 years ago, when the rate spread briefly rose to 175bp.

But, in any case â itâs not as if a Danish euro-membership referendum is right around the corner:

Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen has been quoted as saying the government would âconsiderâ a Danish referendum on the euro once the crisis has passed.